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Internal Street Views, a trip to Egypt and votes for women

Happy Friday! On Wednesday we were really excited to present our first ever pin from inside the White House, of a reception in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are some more famous visitors, Princess Diana and John Travolta, dancing in the main entrance hall of the White House. Such a cool pic!

Princess Diana and John Travolta Dancing, Nov. 5, 1985. (click for full view!)

A big thank you to the U.S. National Archives, who have shared these superb images. We encourage you to explore Google’s Street View blog to get the latest updates on new areas that have been mapped, and then pin them on Historypin. Many of these new additions are excitingly not ‘on the street’ at all. We would love it for people to start pinning in newly digitally charted territories. If you have visited a cool place, from Yosemite National Park to the ruins of Pompeii, and thought that they wouldn’t be on Street View, it couldn’t hurt to check – you might find that they are!

Pin of the week

Ivie Anderson at the Porcella's 1930-1940s.

Pin of the week is from user phidgetyphil, who is pinning some great local history photos from the “Garlic Capital of the World,” Gilroy, CA. He has posted this great photo of Duke Ellington’s favourite singer Ivie Anderson visiting some friends in her hometown of Gilroy, CA. Ivie sang with Duke Ellington, a jazz legend, and his band throughout the 1930’s. I love photos like these on Historypin, of great local history moments shared between friends and family.

Pinner of the Week

Moving one of the stone figures into the Ming Tomb Gallery, 1933.

This week’s Pinner of the Week is the Royal Ontario Museum, who have added some great photos of how some of its world-culture exhibits were constructed in the 1930’s. I am a great lover of museum culture, and it is always fascinating when museums shed light on the kinds of the things that they had on display and how they got there. I’m sure moving a giant tomb from the Ming Dynasty was never a piece of cake! Plus, this is also an excuse to post this fabulous picture of ROM board members in Egypt; I think it would be quite a feat to wear fur in Egypt but that woman is working the look.

Royal Ontario Museum Board Members in Egypt, 1910.

Story of the week

Suffrage Parade in New York City, 1912.

This weekend marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which would finally give women in America the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, the Amendment was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it into law.

Suffrage riots in front of the White House, 1916-1918.

It was not until 1848 that the movement for women’s rights in America launched on a national level with a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, organized by abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880). Following the convention, demanding the vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement. Stanton, Mott, and Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) among others, formed organizations that lobbied the government and raised public awareness for the voting rights of women, combining tactics that were both militant and peaceable. And after 70 years, these groups finally saw success in their efforts with the passage of the 19th Amendment. I salute these brave and pioneering women!